Gurung, who has already served a jail term after being charged with money laundering, including his compatriots were thoroughly checked by the police at Lakshmibazaar while on their way to attend the inauguration ceremony of the football tournament.

A rally was organised by the local people, which saw participation of district heads of youth organisations of all the three major political parties, to welcome Gurung and thank him for his “generosity”.“Gurung gave us the donation on condition that he should be made special guest of the inauguration ceremony and should be introduced as a social worker,” a member of the local club told this daily.

Government officials and senior police officers declined to participate in the inauguration ceremony after learning that Gurung, who is originally from Thalagunj in Gorkha, has been made “special guest”, while only a handful of local people actually turned up to attend the inauguration of the tournament.

Local Development Officer Prem  Raj Giri was made “chief guest” of the programme that was attended by large number of Gurung’s supporters.

Inaugurating the program, Gurung said that the money he donated to organise the football tournament had been made available by “the Gurung Foundation”.

The programme started three hours later than scheduled and only Giri and Gurung gave the opening speeches.

While addressing the crowd gathered to watch the inaugural ceremony of the football tournament, Gurung said that he wishes to pursue a political career in the future and would be happy to contest in the election from one of the Gorkha constituencies.

Gurung who is sometimes linked with CPN(UML), however, did not said as to which party he supports.

However, DSP Ramesh Thapa expressed his dissatisfaction over Gurung being made the special guest of the program.

He said the police neither promotes nor protects criminals or hooliganism in any form.